adminHerald Correspondent
The US hosted the second “Summit for Democracy” from March 29 to 30.
Ignoring the problems and institutional crises of its own democracy, the United States is trying to patch up small groupings in the name of democracy, tout the false narrative of “democracy versus autocracy”, impose hierarchy on the international community and create division in the world.
This is done at the service of group politics and the US strategy of maintaining its primacy.
To hold such a summit is in itself seriously undemocratic and against the global trend of moving towards greater democracy in international relations.
It gravely violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and hampers international solidarity in dealing with common challenges.
The so-called myth of democracy that the US has created for itself has long been shattered.
The political polarisation in the United States continues to fester and the political environment continues to deteriorate, as the farce of failing to elect the 118th House Speaker lasted four days and a decision was only reached after 15 rounds of voting.
The US democracy is becoming more expensive to run and less effective to govern.
There is a serious “inflation” on the issue of political donations, statistics show that the whole exercise of the 2022 US midterm elections has a price tag of more than $16.7 billion, a record high breaking the 2018 record of $14 billion and exceeding more than 70 countries’ GDP combined in 2021.
Meanwhile, the number of laws enacted in successive has dropped sharply from 4 247 in the 93rd to 98th Congresses to 2 081 in the 111th to 116th Congresses.
These show that the United States has fallen into a vicious circle of democratic distortion, political incompetence, and social discord.
The problems of the US democracy are deeply rooted in every aspect of political and social fabric. However, American politicians are not only unable to find the courage and solutions to eliminate the old problems, but also continue to engage in the arrogance that the US democracy is a global model, which will only make the American-style democratic ills more accumulative.
According to a joint Washington Post-University of Maryland survey and a Quinnipiac university poll, Americans’ pride in their democracy has dropped sharply, from 90 percent in 2002 to 5 percent in 2022, 67 percent of respondents believe American democracy is in danger of collapse, and 48 percent think there could be another Capital riot.
The Brookings Institution reported in 2022 that the once-proud American democracy is in systemic crisis and is accelerating its decline.
Under the guise of democracy, the United States is engaged in hegemony and bullying, which is itself anti-democratic.
The current US administration has clung to the Cold War mentality, stirred up ideological confrontation, cobbled together the AUKUS trilateral security partnership, the Quad and the Five Eyes Alliance, strived to fabricate and peddle the false narrative of “democracy versus authoritarianism”.
In 2021, the US held the first “Summit for Democracy”, attempting to divide the international community into so-called “democratic and undemocratic camps” by openly drawing an ideological line, which drew widespread criticism from the international community.
And the second “Summit for Democracy” has actually helped the world see the US hypocrisy and double standard on democracy and the harm it brings.
Everything on the summit agenda are just test questions designed by the US for others participating in the summit to answer and deliver as commitments. The US then grades their answers.
This whole process is neither democratic nor inclusive or transparent.
The Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal proposed by the US is not so much about the renewal for world democracies, but the renewal of US hegemony.
The declaration of the summit, which was pushed by the US to get some countries on board with certain “code of conduct” and “principles”, is about realising selfish purposes, expanding the coverage of the rules set by the US and a few others, and stoke division and confrontation in the world. This is extremely harmful and dangerous.
The US export of US democracy and values to the outside world has brought turmoil and chaos.
In February 2022, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to split in half the $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets frozen in the US.
Half of the assets were to fund financial compensations for 9/11 victims, and the other half were transferred to an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Former US representative Dennis Kucinich noted that the US government has neither the capacity to heal the divisions in the nation, nor the willingness to use the basic science of human relations, sincere diplomacy, to avoid violent conflict, and is unwilling to end conflict peacefully.
Its greatest talent is to craft misinformation and disinformation to subvert the media and misuse it as an instrument to incite fear and hatred among our people, exciting partisan divisions at home through cross-politics, and stirring ancient hatreds abroad through lies, deceit, false flag operations and provocations which profane the very essence of democracy.
Democracy is a common value for all humankind and should not be used as a tool to achieve geo-political goals.
The world today needs to promote true democracy, support countries to develop democracy that suits their national conditions, and jointly promote the democratisation of international relations.
The United States should realise as soon as possible that it is not convincing to teach others with loads of problems in itself, and that it is bound to be strongly opposed by the international community for harming others and messing up the world under the guise of democracy.
As global issues and challenges keep emerging, what our world needs today is not to stoke division in the name of democracy and pursue supremacy-oriented unilateralism, but to strengthen solidarity and co-operation and uphold true multilateralism on the basis of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
What our world needs today is not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs under the guise of democracy, but to advocate genuine democracy, reject pseudo-democracy and promote greater democracy in international relations.
What our world needs today is not a “Summit for Democracy” that hypes up confrontation, but solidarity and co-operation that focuses on taking real actions to solve global challenges.
Online Reporter